Lewis Hamilton, who leads the championship by 21 points, is increasing his grip on first place as the gap between himself and Sergio Perez currently stands at 4.7s.

Perez has food for thought behind him as Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull gets his bigger in his mirrors, seven tenths of a second between those two.

Image source, Getty Images

Just Fernando Alonso, Felipe Nasr and Jenson Button started the race on the medium tyres, the rest of the field on softs.

Alonso has lost 12th to Kimi Raikkonen, who had started poorly but it picking up places now. Nasr and Button are 14th and 15th respectively.

Four laps in and Lewis Hamilton holds a two-second gap over Sergio Perez. Meanwhile, Nico Hulkenberg was unable to overcome those power issues and he is out of the race.

David Coulthard
BBC F1 co-commentator

"The chaos at the start wasn't quite there but Nico Rosberg was the big loser of the new start procedure. Hamilton looked slow initially but then really picked up the traction."

Nico Rosberg regains a position and is up into fourth with Daniel Ricciardo, last year's winner, third and Sergio Perez second.

Meanwhile, something has gone wrong for Pastor Maldonado. He comes to a stop on the back straight and it looks like his race is over before it has really started.

"I lost my engine," he says.

Great start by Lewis Hamilton but Nico Rosberg is down into fifth and suddenly there is McLaren up in 12th! From the back of the grid Fernando Alonso is straight on the attack and quickly picks off a number of rivals.

LIGHTS OUT!

Lewis Hamilton holds it and charges into the first corner in first but what's this? Nico Rosberg is dropping back and Sergio Perez swoops into second!

Carlos Sainz is told to come to the pit lane while Lewis Hamilton once again brings the rest of the grid into position.

Well that's not helped the nerves has it? The race distance is reduced after that aborted lap and is down to 43 now.

Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz on team radio: "Something's wrong - there's no power."

Now Carlos Sainz is reporting power problems!

Nico Hulkenberg is waving from his car on the grid, he's not happy. It looks like it is over for him but the rest of the field have to go through the formation lap again.

Nico Hulkenberg is informed to pit after some concerns regarding power issues that were flagged up earlier, but then another message tells him not to. He is being told to go to the grid.

Off the drivers go on the formation lap and radio silence is in place from now. 

The drivers are out there on their own, and how they get away is completely down to them. No help from the engineers.

David Coulthard
BBC F1 co-commentator

"Statistically pole has not been very successful at this race track. In the last 10 years, only three have been converted into wins.

"But Lewis has been looking so strong, even if he doesn't ace the start, it will be difficult for Rosberg to beat him."

Image source, Getty Images

Will it be a close race between the Mercedes pair? Or could someone else steal victory?

Looking unlikely at the moment, but showers are possible later...